1. Field of The Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical card connector, and particular to a smart card connector having an improved switch device for detecting a card inserted into the connector having reached a position electrically engaging with contacts of the connector.
2. The Prior Art
Following the development of communication and computer technology, a number of cards are devised to meet different requirements. To facilitate a mainframe to read the information stored in these cards, card connectors are used. Such card connectors can be referred to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,735,578, 4,752,234, 4,900,273, and 5,013,255. Taking U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,255 as an example, referring to FIG. 6, a card connector 2 is disclosed having a housing with a base 20 defining two spaces 201 receiving a number contacts 21 therein. These contacts 21 are used for engaging with electrical pads 251 on the card 25, whereby information stored in the card 25 can be read by the mainframe (not shown) via the connector 2. To make sure that the card 25 inserted into the connector 2 has reached a preset position where the card 25 electrically engages with the contacts 21, the card connector 2 has a switch device 22 consisting of a movable terminal 220 and a fixed terminal 23. The switch device 22 is a normal close switch device, which means that a contact portion 221 of the movable terminal 220 disengages from the fixed terminal 23 only when the card 25 inserted into the connector 2 has reached the preset position. Also referring to FIG. 7, since the moving direction of the movable terminal 220 is the same as the inserting direction "A" of the card 25 into the connector 2, a rebounding force of the movable terminal 220 generated by the card 25 pushing an arced portion 223 of the movable terminal 220 may cause a displacement of the card 25 away from its electrical engagement with the contacts 21. When this happens, an erroneous information reading of the mainframe from the card 25 occurs.
Hence, an electrical card connector with an improved switch device is needed to eliminate the above mentioned defects of current electrical card connectors.